This invention relates to mobile computing systems. In particular, it relates to a thermal management solution for such systems.
Mobile computing systems, such as notebook or laptop computers, and pen-based computing systems (Tablet PC""s) generally comprise a large number of electronic components housed within an enclosure that has a comparatively small form factor.
These electronic components generate significant quantities of heat during operation. Therefore, there is a need for some thermal management solution to dissipate the heat in an efficient manner so that the components may operate normally.
Existing thermal management solutions generally include a heat sink comprising a plurality of cooling fins which are physically mounted to a heat generating component that requires cooling. The heat sink is of a conductive material and draws heat from the heat generating component by conduction where after it radiates the heat through the cooling fins.
The above describe a thermal management solution and requires the heat generating component to have sufficient surface area to permit the mounting of the heat sink thereon. However, in some cases a heat generating component may lack the required surface area to permit such a mounting, thereby rendering said thermal management solution in inutile.
This can be a problem, particularly where there is a large concentration of heat generating components that each individually lack the surface dimension to permit mounting of a heat sink thereon.